You may have already heard about the Men’s Health and Women’s Health Beach Boot Camp, our first-of-its-kind fitness event that will be held August 18–19, 2012, in Long Beach, New York. The signature event of the weekend is called The Gauntlet, a series of 12 5-minute workout stations.

One reader emailed us: “Five minutes doesn’t sound so hard.”

Our reply: “Wait till you try it!”

What can 5 minutes do for you? It all comes down to your intensity and attitude, says B.J. Gaddour, one of Boot Camp’s fitness directors. Go hard and you’ll blast out more than 100 repetitions and work every muscle in your body. You’ll torch up to 145 calories and ignite your metabolism. And you’ll blow off steam and sweat buckets. In fact, this type of training is so intense we have a special name for it: 5 minutes of hell.

Perhaps you can handle 5 minutes of hell. Maybe even 15 or 20 minutes of hell. But we guarantee: After 60 minutes of hell, you’ll be begging for mercy—in a good way, of course.

Want to give it a try right away? Check out the free Training Guide that Gaddour created for the Boot Camp event. Stack three, four, or five—or more—5-minute routines and create an incredibly challenging and efficient workout. “In just 15 or 20 minutes, you can do more work than the average gym-goer does in an hour,” says Gaddour.

Then sign up for our first-ever Beach Boot Camp and show off what you learned. We promise you won’t just walk away sweaty, tired, and sore. You’ll also leave smarter. We’ll introduce you to exercises you’ve never done, equipment you’ve never tried, and workouts that you’ve never dreamed of!

You’ll never think about fitness in the same way again. See you there.

More from MensHealth.com:

• Beach Boot Camp: Frequently Asked Questions
• The 15-Minute Full-Body Dumbbell Blast
• Build a Boot Camp Body

There’s a lot of multitasking gear out there—watches that track workouts, phones that talk to you, and now . . . a hooded bodysuit that wards off malaria-infected mosquitoes. Score!

Yep, it’s true. Cornell University scientist Frederick Ochanda and a Cornell apparel design student from Africa have joined forces to create a hooded cape of nets treated with insecticide. (Check out a photo of it, which proves that long-legged women can make anything look sexy. And speaking of sexy women, Position Yourself for Mind-Blowing Sex!)

While a malaria-repelling hoodie may not be your next purchase, gear that’ll do more than just cover you up should be. Below are four items worth your buck.

Don’t Become Roadkill
Night runs don’t have to mean dorky reflector vests. As long as you look good in orange, try Saucony’s reflective gear, the ViZiPRO line—you’ll be seen from 360 degrees in any season, at any time. Bonus: All of the pieces in the line come with a rechargeable light if you feel the need to be blinking. When it comes to daytime runs, protect yourself from the sun with The Best UV Protective Gear for Men. More a green or yellow type guy? Try Brooks’ line of reflective gear.

Shoes for Water and Land
Northface’s Hypershock Boa’s will make any day of adventures more comfortable. How? They’re lightweight, breathable, and dry fast—taking you from water to land (read: no more wet, smelly laces). You actually tighten these “laces” with a gear on the shoe’s side to keep them just as tight or loose as you want. (www.TheNorthFace.com; $115)

Recovery-Speeding Socks
Speed up your recovery time after a long day on your feet with compression socks. They reduce inflammation and cause your small blood vessels to dilate, says Michael Hamlin, Ph. D., an exercise physiologist. This improves blood flow to the heart, which means more oxygen for your muscles through fresh blood, and a speedier recovery. (Find out how you can Add Speed with Compression Gear.) (www.SUGOI.com; $40.00)

Bike Shorts that Keep You Cool
Forget sweating through shorts on your bike ride—“coldblack,” the fabric used in North Face’s 29er Short—reflects the sun’s light instead of absorbing it and helps wick sweat. This means no more odor, or sweat marks down there. It’s also got a UV protective factor of 50. Wear them under your go-to bottoms or on their own. (www.TheNorthFace.com; $120.00)

Additional research by Markham Heid

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• Swim Gear Guide
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It’s a sick paradox of life: The bigger the payoff, the more likely you are to choke. That’s according to new research from the California Institute of Technology.

In the study, as participants played a virtual target game, Caltech researchers offered cash rewards before each trial. Lower amounts ($25, $50) yielded better performance. But as the cash inched closer to $100, performance suffered. It’s not fear of missing a putt or blowing the presentation that causes you to choke, but fear of losing a potentially lucrative reward. (Speaking of a huge reward, that’s what you’ll get for your health when you follow the No-Diet, No-Workout Plan to Lose Your Gut!)

The solution? It’s not more practice. You clam up not because you don’t know something well enough, but because you only have so much brainpower (called working memory) to use at any moment. When the focus you need to land a putt competes for metal space with you overanalyzing your swing form, there’s not enough brainpower to go around. The result: You choke.

Athletes and top businessmen have mastered these specific strategies to succeed under pressure—and so can you.

Write it out. Worrying about potential loss takes up working memory—a limited resource—in your brain, leaving little room for focus. Last year, a study in the journal Science found that students prone to test anxiety improved their scores by one full grade point by writing down their fears for 10 minutes beforehand. Anxiety prohibits the brain from being able to efficiently recall knowledge or skills. “Unloading anxiety from your mind makes it less likely to pop up in the moment,” says study author Sian Beilock, a psychology professor at The University of Chicago. (Follow these 27 Ways to Power Up Your Brain.)

Stay present. Picturing future ramifications or rewards distract from the task at hand. Instead, narrow your focus to a very specific swing, throw, or answer in an interview and think of nothing else. Forget about the overall situation. In an interview, don’t go over the previous bad answer or try to predict what’s coming next. Don’t worry about your tie or the way you’re sitting. Lock eyes and pay attention as if the next question is coming from your grandmother’s deathbed. Nothing else should (or does) matter.

Think of the past. Look back on past successes and figure out why they went right. It will give you confidence and be a good reminder that, yes, you once nailed it and can do it again.

Practice under pressure. It’s hard to replicate the feeling of a do-or-die moment, but the more you feel comfortable in awkward or high-pressure settings, the steadier you’ll be on the big day, says Beilock. Join a weekly improv group if you’re afraid of public speaking. Present your project to your significant other. Enter small, local 10Ks in the months before your half marathon. (You know who practices under pressure? Blake Griffin. Click here to download The Blake Griffin Workout for free!)

Break the stereotype. Studies have shown that if white men believe they’re being tested to prove their math skills are superior to women, they’ll score well; if they believe they’re being tested to find out why Asians outperform them, they choke. Similarly, if a strong female math student is told she’s being tested to find out why men are better than women at math, she falters. Performance drops due to fear of confirming a negative stereotype. Go into situations knowing you’re the exception—or simply lie to yourself.  One study found that women who were told to imagine themselves as a stereotypical male performed better on a mental rotation task than those who didn’t.

Let your palms sweat. You can look at your soaked hands and pounding heart as a harbinger of doom, or you can look at it as the ramp up to something great. “Every athlete has that feeling before a race or game, but they interpret their nervous physical reaction as a call to arms,” says Beilock.

More from MensHealth.com:

• How to Improve Your Working Memory
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The Tyrolean Iceman, found frozen in the Italian Alps, lived 5,300 years ago. But scientists recently uncovered evidence in his genome of a familiar modern condition: lactose intolerance.

No problem for him—his buddies hadn’t yet domesticated animals.

Since then, not only have we tamed cows and filled our dairy cases with their milk, we’ve also accumulated a confusing and often contradictory body of research about dairy—and an anti-dairy camp almost as outspoken as dairy lovers. (Wondering whether you should have a small smoothie or a large O.J.? Pick up Drink This, Not That! to decode your beverage choices.)

“Organic versus milk from cows treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone, super health food versus poison—take your pick. It’s hard to know where to start counting the issues people have with dairy,” says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University and one of the most widely respected nutritionists in the industry. “Emotions run high because milk is primal—it’s everyone’s first food.” It also boasts an efficient public relations team funded by industry groups, she notes.

Truthfully, there are some people who absolutely shouldn’t have dairy: About 2.5 percent of modern Americans have a potentially life-threatening milk allergy. Nearly one in 10, like the Iceman, are missing the enzyme needed to digest milk and may need to take a lactase pill before drinking it.

But is milk good for the rest of us? We sifted through piles of studies and interviewed leading experts on both sides—and in the middle—to sort out the controversy.

The Claim: Milk can help you lose weight

True, there’s some evidence that people who regularly consume dairy are slimmer, but some studies have also found no connection. (If you want to drop pounds, watching what you eat and drink is a start—but that’s not all you need to do. Follow these 9 Weight Loss Rules That Work to lose fat in time for beach season.)

Experimental trials of milk as a diet aid have murkier results. A randomized controlled trial published last year in Nutrition & Metabolism found differences in fat and calories alone, not calcium and dairy, changed dieters’ body composition.

A 2008 study found participants who were told to cut calories, exercise, and drink milk as part of a community-based weight-loss program shed more pounds if they drank more milk. However, the study didn’t track calorie intake. These results may mimic the way dairy works in the real world. There’s probably no magical fat-melting ingredient in milk, but like any other nutritious food, you’ll lose weight if drinking it helps you cut calories, Nestle says. And it might: Protein has satiating effects, and a glass or small carton is relatively portion-controlled, says Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. (For more foods that’ll keep you satisfied for hours, stock your kitchen with these 5 Belly-Filling Foods.)

The Claim: Milk can help you build muscle

A growing body of research has boosted chocolate milk’s rep as the ideal postworkout recovery drink. Most recently, cyclists who chugged the stuff after a tough hour-and-a-half ride recovered more quickly than those who downed a carb-only sports drink, judged by muscle biopsies and their speed on the next ride.

Though most of the research on milk and recovery has been funded by the dairy industry, you shouldn’t throw it out automatically.

Most experts now agree that protein repairs damaged muscles after a hard workout. Milk is rich in whey protein, one of the best for building muscle because the essential amino acids it contains match up neatly to our physiological needs, says Dan Benardot, Ph.D., R.D., a professor of nutrition and researcher at Georgia State University and author of Advanced Sports Nutrition. It’s certainly not the only food or drink that could refuel you, but chocolate milk has a convenient blend of nutrients that rehydrates you, restores sodium and potassium, and gives you sugar to replace the glycogen your muscles burned during hard cardio or weight-lifting workouts, he says. (Click here to learn The Right Workout Fuel for You.)

The Claim: Milk causes cancer

In the documentary Forks Over Knives, nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell explains experiments linking casein in milk to tumor growth in rats, which are frequently used to study human cancers. But the evidence that similar effects occur in humans isn’t compelling, Nestle says.

Some large-scale population studies back a link between milk and the risk of prostate cancer. For example, a 2010 paper found Canadian men had double the risk of prostate cancer if they consumed more dairy products, especially milk.

But to focus in on this study is like looking at “Guernica” through a toilet paper tube: Milk is associated with a decreased risk of colorectal and bladder cancer. Research is thin on the links between dairy and other malignancies.

Plus, these links don’t show that milk causes cancer. Dairy foods are one small part of a pattern of eating and other lifestyle habits that influence cancer risk. There are just too many other variables, Zeratsky says. (What does work? These tips to Cancer-Proof Your Body.)

The Claim: Organic milk is healthier than conventional

Cows at organic dairies aren’t treated with antibiotics, the overuse of which can lead to treatment-resistant superbugs. They also don’t receive recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). But does this difference affect the milk?

Under a program overseen by both the FDA and state regulatory agencies, the dairy industry tests every truckload of milk for antibiotic residue and removes offending batches from the food supply.

Even if you were to drink milk tainted with rBGH, digestive enzymes destroy it.

However, concerns remain regarding whether cows treated with rGBH produce milk with higher levels of insulin-like growth factor, a substance linked to cancer in humans. Nestle, for one, sticks to organic milk. Research hasn’t proven hormones or pesticides used in conventional farming are harmful, she says, but she’d prefer to avoid them.

The bottom line: Milk isn’t essential—but it can do your body good

Many cultures don’t eat dairy and have thrived, Nestle says. And with planning, vegans can have healthy diets. “I don’t know that milk can stand at the top of the pedestal and be the superfood,” says Zeratsky. Claims that it can do everything from boost brainpower to prevent gout—all made in the past few years—may be oversimplified or exaggerated. Many of them have been based on observational studies that don’t prove cause and effect.

“But I think milk offers many nutritional benefits that for many people improve the overall quality of their diet,” Zeratsky continues. Milk seems to offer the biggest bang for your buck, both in calories and dollars, according to a 2011 study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. While only about 10 percent of the average American’s calories come from dairy, milk products are one of the top—and cheapest—sources of key nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D, phosphorus, and vitamin B12.

“Milk is a very important food in that it can deliver a lot of nutrients with relatively few calories,” Benardot concludes—and dairy offers many options, from yogurt to cheese to gelato. “But in the end, milk products should be consumed as part of an otherwise varied diet to have the most beneficial nutritional impact.” After all, no single food is likely to fulfill all your dietary needs any more than the Iceman is likely to wake up and ask for a Klondike bar.

For weekly updates on the best drinks, burgers, snacks, and more, sign up for the Eat This, Not That! Newsletter.

More from MensHealth.com:

• Eat More Food, Lose More Weight
• Stock Your Kitchen, Save Your Life
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HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is known as the “good guy,” scrubbing “bad” cholesterol from your arteries before it can harden. But what if it misbehaved?

Researchers at Harvard University found that a certain protein molecule can prevent HDL from doing its job. It’s called apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III), and it can attach to both HDL and certain types of LDL cholesterol.

Out of 51,000 men and women in the study, those who were in the top fifth of apoC-III levels had a 60 percent greater risk of developing heart disease. The finding explains why some drugs that raise HDL haven’t seemed to have much benefit in preventing heart attacks. (Before you swallow what the doctor prescribes, be sure to read Your Unstoppable Heart.)

People with the most apoC-III tend to be overweight, says study author Frank Sacks, M.D. Preliminary data from another study Sacks is working on indicates that losing weight can lower your apoC-III counts and keep your HDL from turning to the dark side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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